
README FILE

Replication files for:

Carrillo, P.E., and Emran, M.S., (2012) "Public Information and Household Expectations in Developing Countries: Microeconometric Evidence from a Natural Experiment." Review of Economics and Statistics 94:4, 860-877. 


DATA:

The file �CE-data.dta� contains a STATA 10 dataset in tabular form (28775 Cases and 19 Variables).

Empirical results in the paper are estimated using an employment survey that was financed by the Central Bank of Ecuador and carried out by the Facultad de Ciencias Sociales FLACSO-Ecuador, a leading university in the country. It is representative of the population of Quito, Guayaquil, and Cuenca, Ecuador's three largest urban centers. 

The sample consists of a rotating panel of more than 3,000 households (dwellings) surveyed between April 2005 and March 2006. Each month, about 2,300 of these households are interviewed, and information about employment, earnings, and basic demographic characteristics for each member of the family is collected. In addition, respondents are asked twenty questions about their well being and their perceptions about the economic prospects of the country. The survey data have been matched with inflation estimates from the Ecuadorian National Institute of Statistics INEC which vary by city and month. Both the incorrect and the revised estimates of inflation have been recorded. CPI and inflation official data about month t-1 (say, February), are released on the first day of month t (say, March). For this, reason, survey data have been matched with inflation data from the previous month. For example, those households surveyed in March 2006 have been matched with inflation data of February 2006. A list and definition of the variables used in this study are presented in Table 1 and summarized below.


ep: "Future prices"

pi_tm1: "Revised inflation"

pi_tem1: "Incorrect inflation"

unem_tm1:  "Unemployment rate"

male: "Male"

year_edu: "Education"

age: "Age"

partner: "Partner"

income: "Income"

nkids: "Children"

error: "PubSig" (Difference between the incorrect inflation and the revised inflation) 

pi_tm1food: "Rev.Inf.Food" (Revised inflation of food products in CPI)  

pi_tm2_food: "Rev.Inf.Food_t-1" (Revised inflation of food products in CPI during previous period)

pi_tm2: "Rev.Inf.t-1" (Revised inflation previous month)

pi_tem2: "Incorrect inflation t-1" (Incorrect inflation previous month)

cpi_tm1: "Revised CPI" 

yymm: "Year and month when survey was taken"

ciudad: "City code where respondent resides. 1 corresponds to Cuenca; 9 to Guayaquil; 17 to Quito."

rot_17: "Nominal savings ($); 4==ZERO; 1==[1-100]; 2==[100-500]; AND 3==[500+]."


STATA CODE TO REPLICATE RESULTS:

The file �Carrillo.Emran.REStat.do� is a STATA do-file that replicates all tables in the paper.
